Long Beach set to unload 265-property portfolio

LONG BEACH - Mike Conway has a real estate broker's license, but it's a cinch he never thought he'd be selling about 265 properties - at one time.

But in a sense that's what the city's new business and property development director has been tasked with since he moved over from his old job as the director of public works.

As part of his duties, Conway is working with other city departments to oversee the disposition or sale of properties owned by the late Redevelopment Agency, before it was disbanded by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2011.

With more than half of Long Beach qualifying for redevelopment, the local RDA had acquired one of the heftiest property portfolios in the state over the years.

Brown shuttered the agencies and shifted RDA dollars to bolster schools and other government programs and help balance the state's deficit.

In the wake of being disbanded, the Long Beach agency transferred all of its assets to the city, which hopes to retain a measure of control over as many of the properties and cash as possible.

Last week, Conway briefed a community group on the status of efforts to develop a "long-range property management plan."

The state requires the plans be submitted to RDA successor agencies, the City Council in the case of Long Beach, an oversight board and the state's Department of Finance.

Conway said the plans must be in by October, but he hoped to have his completed a couple of months earlier.

That could mean properties being for sale by early next year.

Rob Zur Schmeiede, the deputy director of development services, says a common misunderstanding is that there will be a fire sale on properties.

"That's one of the misconceptions, that came out," he said. "People have asked me `when's the auction?"'

Conway says a mass sell-off would create "havoc" in the market. He also said the city was working with a number of realtors for developers and industrial properties although he has a binder filled with people and companies that have shown interest in buying property.

Although there are technically 265 or so properties on the books, Zur Schmiede said those are individual assessor plots and most are grouped together into larger developments.

The former RDA properties will fall into four categories: public properties, such as the fire station and library in North Long Beach; enforceable obligations, which are properties for which contracts already existed, such as the Shoreline Gateway project in downtown; for sale properties, which are those that will be sold for the best bid without any oversight of the use beyond the city's existing zoning ordinances; and future development, which Conway said will be the most important to the city.

"We are going to try to identify as many properties as possible as future development," Conway said.

The reason, he said, is it "gives us the most control."

"We're going to do our best to fulfill the goals of the RDA," Conway added.

If a property is given future development designation, the city has great latitude in the sale and issuing conditions that ensure the development meets various goals - and the city gets to keep the money.

And therein is where the inevitable conflicts will arise.

The state, naturally, would want more properties just sold off, so it can retain a larger share of the proceeds. And the state Finance Department has the final say over the sale of the properties.

So far everyone is saying the right things.

Conway says "we're going to get as much supporting language from the RDA strategic plans to bolster our claims."

He said he hoped the state will agree with the local designations.

Zur Schmiede also sidestepped questions about possible conflicts when the plan is presented to the state, but admitted that it is reasonable to think the state might try to change designations to receive more money.

But like Conway, he said the future is a great unknown. Of the more than 400 redevelopment agencies in the state, only Arcadia, has gone through the entire long-range property management plan with the state, and that agency has only four or five properties," Zur Schmiede said.